NetBSD Problem Report #59798

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Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2025 16:30:15 +0000 (UTC)
From: nia@pkgsrc.org
Reply-To: nia@pkgsrc.org
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Subject: We are still using GNU diffutils
X-Send-Pr-Version: www-1.0

>Number:         59798
>Category:       bin
>Synopsis:       We are still using GNU diffutils
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    bin-bug-people
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Nov 27 16:35:00 +0000 2025
>Last-Modified:  Fri Jan 02 17:30:02 +0000 2026
>Originator:     nia
>Release:        netbsd-11, netbsd-10, netbsd-9...
>Organization:
The NetBSDiff Foundation
>Environment:
>Description:
NetBSD is still using an old GPLv2 version of diff. In the meantime,
the other BSDs have developed BSD-licensed replacements and switched
to them. We should investigate porting their code.
>How-To-Repeat:
Type "$ man diff", get directed to info page.
>Fix:
Import diff from FreeBSD/OpenBSD.

>Audit-Trail:
From: nia <nia@NetBSD.org>
To: gnats-bugs@netbsd.org
Cc: 
Subject: Re: bin/59798: We are still using GNU diffutils
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:21:05 +0000

 FreeBSD seems the way to go - the functionality of their diff is much
 closer to our GPLv2 diffutils. There's some FreeBSD-specific stuff to
 strip out or fix, and some code problems to fix so that it compiles
 under our WARNS standards.

 Making a little progress here. https://github.com/alarixnia/diff

From: "Nia Alarie" <nia@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@gnats.NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: PR/59798 CVS commit: src/tests/usr.bin/diff
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2025 23:01:28 +0000

 Module Name:	src
 Committed By:	nia
 Date:		Fri Nov 28 23:01:28 UTC 2025

 Modified Files:
 	src/tests/usr.bin/diff: t_diff.sh
 Added Files:
 	src/tests/usr.bin/diff: functionname.in functionname_c.in
 	    functionname_c.out header.out header_ns.out input1.in input2.in
 	    input_c1.in input_c2.in simple.out simple_b.out simple_e.out
 	    simple_i.out simple_n.out simple_p.out simple_u.out simple_w.out
 	    unified_9999.out unified_p.out

 Log Message:
 Import some of the diff tests from FreeBSD that cover features either
 specified by POSIX or commonly used for NetBSD development.

 PR bin/59798 We are still using GNU diffutils


 To generate a diff of this commit:
 cvs rdiff -u -r0 -r1.1 src/tests/usr.bin/diff/functionname.in \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/functionname_c.in \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/functionname_c.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/header.out src/tests/usr.bin/diff/header_ns.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/input1.in src/tests/usr.bin/diff/input2.in \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/input_c1.in src/tests/usr.bin/diff/input_c2.in \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/simple.out src/tests/usr.bin/diff/simple_b.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/simple_e.out src/tests/usr.bin/diff/simple_i.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/simple_n.out src/tests/usr.bin/diff/simple_p.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/simple_u.out src/tests/usr.bin/diff/simple_w.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/unified_9999.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff/unified_p.out
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.3 -r1.4 src/tests/usr.bin/diff/t_diff.sh

 Please note that diffs are not public domain; they are subject to the
 copyright notices on the relevant files.

From: "Nia Alarie" <nia@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@gnats.NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: PR/59798 CVS commit: src/tests/usr.bin/diff
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2025 23:50:33 +0000

 Module Name:	src
 Committed By:	nia
 Date:		Fri Nov 28 23:50:33 UTC 2025

 Modified Files:
 	src/tests/usr.bin/diff: Makefile

 Log Message:
 Add new test files to FILES.

 PR bin/59798 We are still using GNU diffutils


 To generate a diff of this commit:
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.1 -r1.2 src/tests/usr.bin/diff/Makefile

 Please note that diffs are not public domain; they are subject to the
 copyright notices on the relevant files.

From: "Nia Alarie" <nia@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@gnats.NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: PR/59798 CVS commit: src/tests/usr.bin
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2025 23:58:48 +0000

 Module Name:	src
 Committed By:	nia
 Date:		Fri Nov 28 23:58:48 UTC 2025

 Modified Files:
 	src/tests/usr.bin: Makefile
 Added Files:
 	src/tests/usr.bin/diff3: 1.out 1.txt 1t.out 2.out 2.txt 3.txt 5.out
 	    6.out 7.out 8.out 9.out Makefile long-A.out long-ed.out long-m.txt
 	    long-merge.out long-o.txt long-y.txt t_diff3.sh

 Log Message:
 Import diff3 test cases from FreeBSD.

 PR bin/59798 We are still using GNU diffutils


 To generate a diff of this commit:
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.43 -r1.44 src/tests/usr.bin/Makefile
 cvs rdiff -u -r0 -r1.1 src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/1.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/1.txt src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/1t.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/2.out src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/2.txt \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/3.txt src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/5.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/6.out src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/7.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/8.out src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/9.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/Makefile src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/long-A.out \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/long-ed.out src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/long-m.txt \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/long-merge.out src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/long-o.txt \
     src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/long-y.txt src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/t_diff3.sh

 Please note that diffs are not public domain; they are subject to the
 copyright notices on the relevant files.

From: "Nia Alarie" <nia@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@gnats.NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: PR/59798 CVS commit: src/tests/usr.bin/diff3
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:07:26 +0000

 Module Name:	src
 Committed By:	nia
 Date:		Sat Nov 29 00:07:26 UTC 2025

 Modified Files:
 	src/tests/usr.bin/diff3: Makefile

 Log Message:
 Add new test files to FILES.

 PR bin/59798 We are still using GNU diffutils


 To generate a diff of this commit:
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.1 -r1.2 src/tests/usr.bin/diff3/Makefile

 Please note that diffs are not public domain; they are subject to the
 copyright notices on the relevant files.

From: "Nia Alarie" <nia@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@gnats.NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: PR/59798 CVS commit: src
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2025 18:22:17 +0000

 Module Name:	src
 Committed By:	nia
 Date:		Thu Dec  4 18:22:17 UTC 2025

 Modified Files:
 	src: BUILDING
 	src/distrib/sets/lists/man: mi
 	src/doc: BUILDING.mdoc
 	src/external/gpl2: Makefile
 	src/share/man/man5: mk.conf.5
 	src/share/mk: bsd.own.mk
 	src/usr.bin: Makefile
 Added Files:
 	src/usr.bin/diff: Makefile diff.1 diff.c diff.h diffdir.c diffdir.h
 	    diffreg.c pr.c pr.h xmalloc.c xmalloc.h
 	src/usr.bin/diff3: Makefile diff3.1 diff3.c

 Log Message:
 Import BSD-licensed diff from FreeBSD to replace GNU diffutils

 Ported to NetBSD, compiler warnings fixed, and some unnecessary
 features (for the purpose of replacing our GPLv2 diff) have been
 stripped out.

 Non-default at the moment, requires building with MKBSDDIFF=yes.

 PR bin/59798 We are still using GNU diffutils


 To generate a diff of this commit:
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.161 -r1.162 src/BUILDING
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.1812 -r1.1813 src/distrib/sets/lists/man/mi
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.150 -r1.151 src/doc/BUILDING.mdoc
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.14 -r1.15 src/external/gpl2/Makefile
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.114 -r1.115 src/share/man/man5/mk.conf.5
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.1444 -r1.1445 src/share/mk/bsd.own.mk
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.242 -r1.243 src/usr.bin/Makefile
 cvs rdiff -u -r0 -r1.1 src/usr.bin/diff/Makefile src/usr.bin/diff/diff.1 \
     src/usr.bin/diff/diff.c src/usr.bin/diff/diff.h \
     src/usr.bin/diff/diffdir.c src/usr.bin/diff/diffdir.h \
     src/usr.bin/diff/diffreg.c src/usr.bin/diff/pr.c src/usr.bin/diff/pr.h \
     src/usr.bin/diff/xmalloc.c src/usr.bin/diff/xmalloc.h
 cvs rdiff -u -r0 -r1.1 src/usr.bin/diff3/Makefile src/usr.bin/diff3/diff3.1 \
     src/usr.bin/diff3/diff3.c

 Please note that diffs are not public domain; they are subject to the
 copyright notices on the relevant files.

From: "Nia Alarie" <nia@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@gnats.NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: PR/59798 CVS commit: src/share/mk
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2026 17:26:50 +0000

 Module Name:	src
 Committed By:	nia
 Date:		Fri Jan  2 17:26:50 UTC 2026

 Modified Files:
 	src/share/mk: bsd.own.mk

 Log Message:
 mk: Switch the default to MKBSDDIFF=yes.

 PR bin/59798 We are still using GNU diffutils


 To generate a diff of this commit:
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.1460 -r1.1461 src/share/mk/bsd.own.mk

 Please note that diffs are not public domain; they are subject to the
 copyright notices on the relevant files.

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